Riverfront Crosses

CHICAGO (AP) — The attorney for an Indiana church says its free speech rights were violated when a federal judge blocked the city of Evansville from allowing 31 crosses decorated by vacation Bible school students to be erected along the city's public riverfront.

Evansville officials had approved the display requested by Westside Christian Church, but two local residents filed suit, arguing that the 6-foot-tall crosses along four blocks of city property would appear to endorse religion. Judge Sarah Evans Barker agreed and prohibited the display.

On Tuesday, the church's attorney, Bryan Beauman, urged the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn that ruling.

But Gavin Rose, an attorney for the ACLU of Indiana, said the church had no right to appeal since the ruling was against the city, and the city didn't appeal.

One of the appellate judges suggested that seemed an odd position to take for an organization that defends the First Amendment.